Some people say that Microsoft has changed, and is no longer the corporate "asshole" it used to be in the days of the war over the PC as a platform - which it has won.
I'm not sure if that claim is very credible. The evidence seems to point to a company with relatively stable corporate culture to me.
A quick look at the "About FairSearch.org" page (http://www.fairsearcheurope.eu/about-fairsearch-org) reveals that the organisations behind this either operate vertical search engines, or are Google's rivals (in general.) Not cool.
Perhaps even more ironic is that they allow their page to be indexed by google. Much like Alanis Morisette song about the same subject, there isn't much irony in the page.
I've never understood why people care about the 'character' of a company... people aren't good or evil, they merely do things.
Some of the things that Microsoft/Oracle/Nokia do are 'good', some of the things Google does is good, some of the things MSFT/ORCL/Nokia do are bad, some of the things Google does are bad.
Google may do more good things for you than MSFT, or MSFT may do more good things for you than Google, but it doesn't make either good or bad, they just are. Google's breaking the law isn't FUD anymore than Microsofts'. They are both felons.
There is no light side, there is no dark side, it's just a bunch of people doing whatever benefits them.
If you take the bias away from this, then I agree with the underlying sentiment. However, even though I'm not particularly a fan of google myself, I'd rather this was an independent group rather than a corporate lobbying group. it ruins their credibility instantly and degrades this to playground fighting.
I'm not sure if that claim is very credible. The evidence seems to point to a company with relatively stable corporate culture to me.